Academy of St Martin in the Fields

After the interval, it is time for Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, which he wrote at his inspiring summer retreat at Lake Wörthersee: the melodies, the composer observed, flowed so freely there that one had to be careful “not to step on any of them.” So he wrote his Second Symphony with unusual speed and felt cheerful and at ease during that summer of 1877. To this day, both critics and audiences can still sense the pastoral atmosphere in the work.